🇻🇪 Pastor Maldonado

Pastor Maldonado is an established professional, FIA Platinum-graded racing driver who competed across single-seater and endurance championships over a 14-year career. He raced in Formula 1 for Williams from 2011 to 2015, accumulating 96 starts. Earlier, he won the 2010 GP2 Series championship with Rapax before stepping up to the top formula; later, he contested the World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech with DragonSpeed in 2018 and 2019.[1]

His single-seater record spans four open-wheel series from 2004 onward. In Formula Renault Eurocup and Formula V8 3.5, he took three wins and two wins respectively across a combined 26 starts. His GP2 Series campaign yielded 10 wins and 18 podiums across 54 starts, establishing him as a consistent frontrunner at that level. In Formula 1, he secured one win, the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix for Williams, alongside one additional podium from 96 starts, finishing far less frequently at the front than his junior success had suggested. He finished ahead of Max Verstappen on four occasions and Lewis Hamilton twice, though both drivers dominated the grids and championships of their respective eras. Against his regular Formula 1 opponents, he ran closely with 2011 GP2 champion and Formula 3 Euro Series champion Romain Grosjean, though he more often finished behind Sergio Pérez, an elite professional with extensive Formula 1 and GP2 experience.[2]

In his final two seasons of racing, Maldonado moved to endurance competition with DragonSpeed in the WEC and IMSA, taking a win and three podiums from nine combined starts and finishing 17th in the 2019 WEC standings.